Tool Change Process Improvement at AIS

Kaushik, Raman; Chaves, Benjamin; Wofford, Matthew

Student Work

Tool Change Process Improvement at AIS

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The objective of this project was to improve the efficiency and subsequently reduce the costs of the CNC routing process at Affordable Interior Systems (AIS). To achieve this objective, we first investigated and modeled the routing process to identify areas of improvements. This entailed value stream mapping and creating a simulation of the process on Rockwell Arena. Our next step was to evaluate areas of improvement and determine where LEAN tools could be implemented. We utilized time studies and conducted root cause analysis with the operators using interviews and surveys. Lastly, we determined solutions based on our findings and conducted a cost-benefit analysis to quantify the effects of our results. Our findings revealed that the current time between tool changeover at routing varied and was unstandardized. With the combination of the various LEAN tools utilized and the results from the tooling team, our suggested implementation would decrease the number of tool changeover by 29% approximately at every work surface router. Furthermore, from the cost-benefit analysis of our implementation, the team established that by using a distance tracking software on all the routers and a calculator created by the tooling team, AIS could save approximately $12,000 annually on just tool bits. In summary, our project was able to leverage LEAN technique to determine areas of improvement and provide a quantifiable outcome from our suggested implementations.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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